25 Oct 2014

On Sunday 2 November 2014, Minny Pops will take part in November's edition of the monthly Tuesdays Post evening at The Others in Stoke Newington, London. Good people, innovative music, comfortable sofas.

In honour of the re-release of their debut recording, Minny Pops' 16-minute performance will deconstruct and construct a song from Drastic Measures, Drastic Movement.

Michel Sordinia (vocals and bass guitar) and Marc Deprez (guitars), with Christophe Boulenger on keyboards and Laurent Loddewijckx on drums will be in the Noise Factory studio in Wierde from tomorrow to work on the new album 'Nowherarians', a double album of totally new songs, and will follow its 2015 release with a string of new concerts.

14 Oct 2014

Finally after 18 years of research, The Deeply Vale Box will be released in the UK in late October 2014 and worldwide a bit later. This beautiful book and box set will be limited to 500 boxes worldwide - the 272 page A4 book is mainly colour and is housed in a box with 6 CDs and a pack of incense. Put on one of the CDs, open the book, light an incense stick to burn and transport yourself back to the mid 70s to early 80s Deeply Vale Festivals, as well as the Rivington Pike Festivals and the Manchester Rock Against Racism Concerts.

Deeply Vale was important as it was the first of the free festivals to open its stage to Punk and New Wave bands and it was also intertwined with the Manchester Rock Against Racism movement. Long before any other festival it crossed the hippy punk divide; its where Planet Gong/Here and Now met The Fall and hippy sound man Grant Showbiz would strike up a 35 year relationship as producer for The Fall. Here and Now would take The Fall, Danny and the Dressmakers (with Graham Massey), Wilful Damage and Alternative TV on their anarchic tours after Deeply Vale. The Ruts were formed in a tent at Deeply Vale in 1977 after two members of London Funk band Hit and Run saw the The Drones perform a punk set on stage. The 1978 Festival not only included Steve Hillage, Here and Now and Nik Turner but also The Fall, The Durutti Column and The Ruts.

13 Oct 2014

Here's a reminder this Friday sees Happy Mondays headline a very special charity event to raise money for the Chico's Kickin' Cancer fund. Northern Uproar and Peter Hook are also on the bill.

Paul Ryder, Chico's father says "Tickets are going fast for the special fundraiser we're doing at The Palace Hotel in Manchester on Friday October 17th. We're playing a full set, plus there will be support from Northern Uproar and another band we're not allowed to name, plus DJ sets from Mani, Clint Boon and 808 State, plus some top secret celebrity special guests. We'll be auctioning a load of signed memorabilia, plus hosting the night is top LA comedian Tony Cascio. Don't miss out."

1 Oct 2014

The Weekend Fest in Köln (Cologne), Germany which runs from 27-29 November 2014 has a distinctly Factory flavour to it with both ESG (Emerald, Sapphire and Gold) and ACR (A Certain Ratio) featuring prominently on the bill.

ESG (who recently made a surprise appearance at Glastonbury are onstage at 23:45 on Friday 28 November 2014.

Biographer Simon Spence (The Stone Roses: War and Peace) tells the story of how Happy Mondays came to provide the soundtrack to Britain's last great youth movement - Madchester. Based on extensive interviews with the band and key associates and including 30 unseen photographs, many from the band's own private collection, he reveals the truth behind the mythic stories that ensured their outlaw reputation, and unravels the chaos that led to the group's ultimate implosion and the tragic collapse of Factory Records.

Excess all areas - a biography is out via Aurum Press on 30 October 2014 in hardback and e-book formats. It's available to pre-order now at Amazon.co.uk.

In the grey days of late 1970s post-punk Manchester, youth culture was a serious affair: every musical performance was measured mostly by the conviction of its delivery. The term 'New Wave' opened up free vistas where acquired skills could once again be exercised after punk's monochrome blur. It could be applied to anything from a James 'Blood' Ulmer record to the latest Throbbing Gristle release, Magazine to Swell Maps. Move outside that terrain into Sun Ra, Parliament, Frank Sinatra and Martin Denny, and your options were suddenly without limit...

Then came Tony Wilson's Factory Club (at the Russell Club in Hulme) offering an open invitation to experiment that was taken up when Ken Hollings, Howard Walmsley, Eddie Sherwood and a few others decided to make some noise to accompany their 16mm silent epic Biting Tongues. A further performance followed a few weeks later, when Colin Seddon and Graham Massey disbanded their Post Natals project and joined up. The film itself, a flashing series of negative images, became a memory; the name remained.